American college campuses remain a difficult place to voice unpopular opinions, according to the latest College Free Speech Rankings from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), even as the report’s authors point to modest signs of improvement.
The University of Chicago claimed the top spot for the third time in the survey’s seven-year history, followed by Claremont McKenna College, Georgia Tech, Michigan Technological University and Vanderbilt. At the bottom, New York University ranked last, with the University of Washington, Texas State University, Northeastern University and Rutgers University-New Brunswick rounding out the five worst performers. Both Washington and Northeastern were also in the bottom five last year.
The report, based on nearly 63,000 student responses from 261 schools surveyed between January and June, found that the average overall score of 61.36 is the highest FIRE has recorded since it began the rankings — though that figure still corresponds to a D- on the organization’s grading scale. Just 24 schools received a C or better, while 121 received a failing grade, an improvement from 166 failing schools last year.
“At a tumultuous time for higher education, we are seeing some progress in campus free speech policies,” FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff said in a statement, while cautioning that “the overall state of free speech on campus is grim.” He pointed to administrators who cancel controversial speakers, cave to censorship pressure, or limit academic freedom as ongoing problems.
Harvard’s rise out of last place — where it sat in the two previous years — was among the report’s more notable shifts. FIRE researchers attributed the jump to improved student perceptions of administrative support for free speech and the fading of penalties tied to older controversies. The University of California, Davis posted the single largest gain, climbing from 252nd to 24th after adopting the Chicago Statement, a free-speech pledge many universities have signed, and a formal commitment to institutional neutrality on political issues. Texas State University suffered the steepest decline, dropping from 112th to 259th after a string of incidents that included firing a tenured professor over an off-campus speech and expelling a student who mocked the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a campus vigil.
Kirk’s assassination last September at Utah Valley University cast a shadow over the year covered by the survey. At 61 of the ranked schools, over half of students said Kirk was now “difficult to discuss” on campus, and nine schools lost points in the rankings after punishing faculty for comments about his death. UVU itself fell sharply in the rankings, from 71st to 210th, as students there reported increased self-censorship and diminished comfort discussing controversial topics generally.
Nationally, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remained the most fraught topic to discuss for a third straight year, cited by half of students, though that’s down from 55% two years ago. Donald Trump and Kirk followed closely behind on the list of difficult subjects. The percentage of students who said it’s acceptable to shout down a speaker, block access to an event, or use violence to silence one also ticked down slightly from record highs — though all three remain at what the report calls “disturbingly high levels.” For a second consecutive year, a majority of students said they would oppose allowing each of six hypothetical controversial speakers on campus, regardless of whether the viewpoint was liberal or conservative.
FIRE’s report credits gains at individual schools to consistent institutional leadership, pointing to Vanderbilt, Dartmouth and DePauw University as examples of campuses that reformed their policies and then held firm when controversies tested them. “Leadership matters,” the report states. “Dear administrators, the students notice.”
